Our new routine

Posting here has been a little light lately, because we’ve been very busy with our newest addition to the family, but I wanted to give a quick update.  Michaela is doing great!  Her bilirubin is down and she seems to be jaundice-free.  She has lots of energy and she’s eating like a velociraptor.  Mike and I think she’s going through or on the verge of a growth spurt, which is pretty exciting!

We’ve settled into a routine of feedings and diaper changes and cat naps.  Mike usually takes the first two or three night feedings (depending on when I go to bed) and I take the middle-of-the-night/wee-hours-of-the-morning ones.  This morning, I was up at 1 a.m., 4 a.m., and 7 a.m., I think, and then Mike took over while I slept in a bit.  I feel really lucky to have such a good partner; I don’ t know how single parents do it.

The most interesting thing about our new routine is something I never really thought about before, or during, my pregnancy: what Michaela’s every-two-to-three-hour schedule means for my schedule.  One of us has to be up every two to three hours to attend to her needs– obviously.  On the surface, that doesn’t seem like much, but what it means in real life is that every two to three hours, we have to put in an hour with her.  It takes time to feed her (especially now that she’s eating a lot!) and to change her diaper, so if I’m up at 1 a.m., for example, I don’t get back to bed until 2, and then have to be up again at 3.  That’s where the lack of sleep comes into play!

That said, it’s amazing how quickly the days pass.  It feels like at least once a day, I look at the clock and am shocked to see it’s several hours later than I thought it was.  And that’s actually a really good feeling!